Project Officer – Gender & Advocacy (CE4HOW) Full Time

ABOUT PRACTICAL ACTION

We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

OUR AIMS

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems, made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. Our aims are to:

• Make agriculture work better for smallholder farmers, many of them women, so they can adapt to climate change and achieve a good standard of living.
• Help more people harness the transformational effects of clean affordable energy and reduce avoidable deaths caused by smoke from indoor stoves and fires.
• Make cities in poorer countries cleaner, healthier places to live and work.
• Build disaster resilience into the lives of people threatened by hazards – reducing the risk of hazards and minimising their impact on lives and livelihoods.

PRACTICAL ACTION IN KENYA

In Kenya, Practical Action has a long history of addressing systemic barriers that prevent people from accessing energy that transforms their lives, helping communities and government make cities healthier and safer, making agriculture and markets work better for small holder farmers and supporting communities and government to become more resilient.

We use a mix of programming with communities and consultancy services with shapers of policy and practice to achieve our aims.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The objective of the project is to create a commercially viable circular economy model for household organic waste, that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves household waste services, and transforms the lives of informal waste workers.

Household organic waste makes up over 60% of municipal waste but is currently un-valued, uncollected, and a source of pollution. The project will create an urban waste collection system in Kakamega, Kenya, to feed 4,000 tonnes pa of household organic waste into Regen Organic’s (part of Sanergy Inc.) new waste processing plant. This will be converted into organic fertiliser and animal feed, providing regenerative inputs for local farmers who in turn supply food to the urban area, creating a circular economy. The innovation is in incentivising household separation of waste and creating privately run aggregation centres that can profitably integrate waste into Regen Organic’s supply chain, whilst creating decent jobs.

Practical Action is looking for a Project Officer-Gender and Advocacy who will be responsible for gender mainstreaming and proactive advocacy support to the Circular Economy for Household Organic Waste (CE4HOW) project. They will work with partners/stakeholders to ensure that gender equity principles are incorporated into all project activities, policies, plans and budgets. They will plan, implement and follow up on gender and advocacy-related activities and provide support to counterpart staff, partners and other stakeholders on mainstreaming gender in their programs, policies, plans, budgets and activities, including design and implementation of trainings on gender-related topics.

SCOPE

Title: Project Officer – Gender & Advocacy (Circular Economy for Household Organic Waste (CE4HOW) project)

Reporting to: Project Manager

Relationships:

• Internal: Delivery Teams, Impact & Influence Team, Business Development team, Communications team, Finance & Systems, People and Culture and Operations functions
• External: Consortium and other Strategic Partners relevant to the project – government ministries, community stakeholder and informal waste workers.

Location: Kakamega, Kenya

Travel requirements: Frequent travel within geographic scope (and others as required)

Position Status: Full-time, Regular

ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Promote and facilitate gender and social inclusion mainstreaming and gender transformative approaches in the day-to-day activities of the project.
• Ensure that the different perspectives, capacities, needs and resources of the stakeholders, including those of waste and sanitation workers, are reflected in the project strategies and implementation plans.
• Build the capacity of staff, waste and sanitation workers and other partners through training and technical assistance on gender and social inclusion and ensure they embrace gender mainstreaming in all their operations.
• Plan and actively involve the partners/stakeholders in marking the recognized gender, waste and sanitation related days.
• Lead in conducting gender technical studies and assessments in relation to waste and sanitation management.
• Represent the CE4HOW project in coordination meetings and other related forums to ensure gender and inclusion issues in waste and sanitation management are captured and acted upon.
• Take lead in the planning and implementation of the advocacy component of the CE4HOW project.
• Take lead in establishing dialogue, sensitizing, lobbying and supporting gender mainstreaming and social inclusion among community organisations and partners at local, sub-national and national level to mobilise their support and participation in the project’s advocacy and influencing agenda.
• Support the development and implementation of gender action plans within the project and among the project partners to enhance gender equality and social inclusion integration in the waste and sanitation sector.
• Contribute to the development of technical guidance tools and approaches and coordinate the operational roll out of the same.
• Network and maintain dialogue with relevant Government Institutions, National and International Development Organizations to ensure collaboration, synergy and sharing of experiences on GESI, Waste and Sanitation management.
• In collaboration with the communications and impact and influence team, contribute to the production of GESI related content i.e knowledge products, success stories, etc.
• Represent Practical Action in the project area to local government, local communities, NGOs and other actors when requested to do so.
• Participate in local coordination / networking meetings as required.
• Support effective lesson learning, information management and sharing in close collaboration with the Communication team.
• Contribute to visibility/positioning of Practical Action as a thought leader in gender, waste and sanitation management, including representation at sub/national, regional and international forums.
• Collaborate efficiently and effectively with partners for learning and adoption of innovative interventions to improve project delivery.
• Participate as a member in the organizational Global Gender Group & interact with any other internal and external groups as appropriate.
• Support the timely and accurate preparation and utilization of project activity budgets.
• Support the preparation of donor project reports and other internal reports as required.
• Support development of fundable project ideas and proposals to raise funds for scaling up the DGBP work in the region.
• Keep abreast of information and knowledge in the area of gender, waste and sanitation management, synthesize, document and share both internally and externally.

PERSON PROFILE

To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate should meet the following requirements:

Experience & Knowledge

• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences (Gender studies, Sociology, Rural development or related studies from a reputable University.
• At least 4 years’ field and technical working experience with three years in the gender and development field or relevant working experience in NGOs.

Essential

• An excellent understanding of gender issues in development and women economic empowerment.
• Good understanding of the institutional frameworks pertaining to gender and poverty in Kenya.
• Good lobbying and advocacy skills and ability to negotiate and network with broad range of stakeholders including youth.
• Good networking, team building and alliance building skills.
• Proficient in communicating with different stakeholders including women in rural communities, county and national government representatives, other stakeholders at national level etc.
• Good experience in integrating gender and diversity and sensitivity to gender and diversity issues.
• Good communication, facilitation, training and representation skills.
• Ability to work with, support and influence others.
• Good writing, speaking and typing skill in English is mandatory.

Desirable

• Good knowledge and application of the Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS) methodology in agriculture will be an added advantage.
• Experience working with multi-faceted teams both directly and remotely providing timely support when required.
• Working knowledge of the private sector in waste management in Kenya.

A detailed Job Profile can be accessed from Practical Action website: Project Officer – Gender & Advocacy: CE4HOW – Practical Action

Tagged as: Kenya, Practical Action